The Garbageman
by crazy alligator
Summary: AU Oneshot. LloydxColette. He was just a simple garbageman. Never did he expect to meet such a pretty girl on the job. What was even more surprising was the fact that she actually seemed to like him. A birthday present for THE TOM HANKS EXPERIENCE.


Hey everybody! This is Crazy Alligator, back for the third year of writing a birthday fanfiction for my great, wonderful, amazingly spectacular friend THE TOM HANKS EXPERIENCE. It's an AU oneshot, semi-inspired by the Disney short "The Paperman" (hence the title). As stated in the description, it's LloydxColette. Enjoy!

The Garbageman

"Bleh!" exclaimed Lloyd as he neared the putrid-smelling garbage cans of house 827. "These people must have had a whole _fridge _full of rotten meat to throw away."

"Bear with it," called out his redheaded partner, cupping a hand beside his mouth to amplify the volume of his voice. "The sooner you get the trash in the truck, the better. Just do it so you can get it over with." Lloyd sighed in recognition of the statement's validity, sticking his hand into the pocket of his overalls so he could fish out his emergency nose plugs. Snapping them over his nostrils effectively blocked the fetid stench, and with that he removed the lids of the containers in question, dragging them to he and Zelos's large vehicle and throwing their contents into it while trying to ignore what exactly said contents _were_. He definitely didn't want to know. Replacing the cans by the curbside and climbing back into the garbage truck, the spiky-haired man removed the plugs, exhaling a breath as a notion of gratefulness for the fact that _that _job was done.

"Oh, Zelos, I almost forgot!" he said, perking back up to his usual attitude in a matter of milliseconds, "We have a new customer." He opened their cluttered glove box, sorting through the many papers until he located the map that had their route marked on it. Pointing to the newly added sharpie dot, he continued, "According to this, it's house 718 in this neighborhood. It should be just down the street from here." Zelos glanced at the map and nodded, placing the vehicle's gear into drive as Lloyd fastened his seat belt. True to the younger man's words, they only had to go one or two blocks down the street to reach the new place, and when both saw the U-Haul trucks, Lloyd remarked that the people living there must have just moved in. Undoing his safety belt and hopping out, he made his way to the curb in front of the house and emptied their garbage can. As he climbed back in with Zelos, a young girl emerged from the house—a blonde, blue-eyed female who looked to be around his own age, 18. She smiled at the both of them, her expression bright and cheerful, and Lloyd found himself awestruck, staring in her direction even when Zelos drove them away.

"Uh...Lloyd, are you alright?" The older man, dumbfounded, replayed the recent events over in his head, and was soon able to put two and two together. He smirked suggestively, nudging his comrade. "Someone's rather lovestruck, eh?" Lloyd's trance was broken, and his face went beet red from the top of his scalp to the bottom of his neck. Sinking back into his chair, the brunette male, despite his embarrassment, still couldn't get the vision of the pretty girl out of his head. Soon enough, the two men had finished their rounds, and as Lloyd lay sprawled out on his mattress that night, all he could think of was how sunny she seemed, the fact that she was so joyful and full of life. He didn't even know her, but that single smile of hers attracted him to her, like a moth to a light. He fell asleep into a dreamland with magnificent blue skies and radiant, glorious suns.

Lloyd's stomach began to churn as they approached house 718 the next day. He wondered if the girl would walk out and wave at them. As Zelos pulled up to the house, he opened the door and stepped out, both disheartened and relieved that she was nowhere in sight. As he opened the lid of the residents' garbage can, he noted faintly that the bags weren't tied up correctly, but brushed the small matter off as he dumped the waste into the truck. This was a mistake on his part, as a piece of paper slipped out from one of the sloppily tied garbage bags. Cursing his foresight, the young male chased after the scrap as the wind carried it up the house's driveway, continuing even though Zelos shouted for him to let it be. Bent down so he could try to grasp it, his field of vision was limited to the ground, and he was barely able to register the sight of a pair of feet before his head crashed into something soft. Toppling onto the ground and taking his unfortunate victim with him, he looked up so he could apologize to the person, his lips involuntarily gluing themselves together when he saw that it was the blonde girl.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she burst out, making Lloyd internally inquire why _she _was the one apologizing. "I'm so clumsy! I do things like this all the time!" She immediately stood and offered him a hand, remorse apparent in her face, and Lloyd finally managed to work up the courage to speak.

"No, it was my fault, really," he replied, taking the proffered help and flashing a characteristically bashful grin. "In any case, you shouldn't worry about me; I have a pretty hard head." He rapped his knuckles on said body part, his joke unbearably impassable, but the girl giggled earnestly, showing him a smile like the one she had given yesterday.

"You're very funny," she told him, entirely honest once again. The compliment nearly turned his pink-tinted cheeks into ripened tomatoes. Before he could reluctantly tell her that he needed to get back to his rounds, she spoke again. "My name is Colette Brunel, soon-to-be freshman at the local University. It's nice to meet you—you seem like a wonderful person. Would you like to come inside for a bit?" Oh, how he wanted to answer her question affirmatively.

"I'm sorry, but I'm on the job right now. My partner's probably really irritated with me." On the contrary, Zelos was peeking out the window with a smirk on his face, amused by the couple's interaction. "I can come by later, though. Name's Lloyd Irving, employee of Aurion Waste Services, Inc." Her smile brightened at this.

"That sounds great! My mother's cooking a pot roast for dinner tonight—it's baking in the oven right now, and it smells very good. Can you come around 6:00?" Lloyd internally checked his schedule, making sure there was nothing he was forgetting about.

"Sounds good...no, great! That sounds great!" He said it with confidence and resolve, and Colette laughed once more, the two of them bidding each other farewell. As he reentered the truck, Zelos flashed him a saucy smile and drove away, Colette waving happily at them all the while.

"Looks like you scored, my friend." Lloyd didn't even hear his friend's comment—he was too busy daydreaming about pot roasts and ocean-colored eyes.

END

So it was pretty short, but I thought it was cute. What about you guys? Tales of Symphonia is owned by Namco. I make no monies from this story. Once again, a shout out to THE TOM HANKS EXPERIENCE. HAPPY BITHDAY! All comments are appreciated and loved.


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